Understanding
by MovieVillain
Summary: If a secret is told, then there's understanding.


**Understanding**

Shiki is running towards the street as she goes to visit her best friend, Eri. As she is running, she recalls of what happened previously in her life.

Before going into the Reaper's Game, Shiki's been a shy girl while Eri has been cooler than anyone. This starts her jealousy. One day, her fate is about to change. When Eri told her that she wasn't meant to be a designer, Shiki runs away and died since that day.

When she was sent to the Reaper's Game, she is Eri. Her reaction to this was that she's happy; she finally got what Eri has in all her life. However, later on, she wasn't happy of becoming Eri. What else is that her fighting style would be animating her stuffed animal, Mr. Mew. That is until she met Neku in the Reaper's Game. In the 6th day, they watched over Eri saying that she quits on being a designer and it is because she had all the things she doesn't have. Those words coming out of her mouth made the jealousy inside her disappear.

Now that she's back not only to life, but also to her true appearance, Shiki hopes to find understanding in her best friend if she attempts to tell her about the Reaper's Game. As far as she remembers, she has told her some secrets before and kept them. The Reaper's Game? That's one big secret to keep.

Shiki reaches Eri's house by the front door and rings the doorbell. She gets nervous, though she must overcome this.

_I'm hoping Eri would keep this biggest secret I'm going to tell her._

"Yes?" says Eri as she opens the door in a sad manner. She goes from sad to surprised as she saw it's Shiki answering her door.

"Shiki?"

"Yes, Eri, it's me." Shiki said in a tone that shows courage. "It's me, and I'm alive."

Eri begins to have tears coming out of her eyes and gets closer to her friend for a hug. Of course, she's looking for some answers that she wants to know.

"What happened, Shiki? You died and came back to life." asked Eri as she begins to look curious of what is going on.

"Well, that's what I want to talk to you about. Can we go inside to your room?" Shiki suggests that Eri's room could be a good place to talk about secrets.

As she gets a look at her house, Shiki finds it the same as it was when she makes a visit. As for Eri's room, it looks the same as it was. By her view with her glasses, it's vividly pink, filled with design and different fashion magazines. She knows that she and Eri used to read that type of magazine because they love fashion.

"Okay, now that you're back to life, can you please tell me what happened? How did you come back to life and who or what made you believe in yourself?" Eri asks Shiki about this. She knows she is shy, but now, she's confident. Eri can see this with her eyes.

"Okay, Eri, you deserve to know the truth. Have you ever heard of the Reaper's Game?"

As Shiki tells her story, Eri just listened to all of it from her meeting with Neku at the Statue of Hachiko as her pact partner to their fight against the Conductor, Megumi Kitanji.

"So, in the Game, you're me?" asks Eri in curiosity.

"Yes, but despite that, I'm still me." Shiki replies to the question.

Eri said, "That's good, and how does it feel?"

Shiki begins to feel nervous about telling this kind of experience. To her, it's creepy, but nevertheless must deal with it in order to come back to life.

"At first, I thought I was happy because now I have what you have." all she could say as she starts to have tears in her eyes that are going down from her glasses to her chin. "However, as time goes by, I wasn't."

Eri begins to feel sympathy for her shy friend going through all that experience. Now she understands of what's going on with her.

"I think I know why." said Eri, deducing that kind of statement. "It must have something to do with that argument we had before you died, right?"

Those words coming out of her mouth really did surprised Shiki. She never thought Eri could be clever enough to know of her reason. All she needed to do is answer truthfully about this.

"Yes..." was the reply.

_So it is true. You're me in the Game because I know you're shy while I'm cooler than everyone else. Guess that when you're someone else, you can't be that person forever._ Eri gives her a hug then said some comforting words, "Look at yourself, Shiki, you're you. You don't need to be somebody else just because you don't have what anybody else could have."

These words made Shiki better by any chance. She wipes off her tears.

"Now then, I'm going to show you something that is gonna amaze you. You want to know how I survive for just three weeks?" she said in an exciting mood.

"What?"

Shiki shows Eri her stuffed animal that she's been carrying for so long, Mr. Mew.

"Mr. Mew, huh? Well, what about him?"

"Well, I animated him to do all the fighting against all the Noise." was the reply coming out of Shiki.

"The Noise? What's that?"

Shiki said, "They're the monsters I fought by using Mr. Mew."

Eri begins to think about this. _And this is how you survive the Game for just three weeks. Fair enough._

She then asks, "Anything else you do in the Game?"

"I can scan on people to know of what they're thinking. You're so lucky I'm not gonna use that power on you."

"Yeah, otherwise you might find out I have bad thoughts about you which I don't." said Eri. "Oh, and Shiki..." Then she draws closer to her so that she can give her a hug. "I'm sorry. It's kinda my fault that you're in the Game facing all those monsters. I wanted to cheer you up from that other day by saying you're not meant to be a designer because you couldn't come up with a design. I guess I was wrong. It didn't cheer you up, it made you sad. I guess I could say I killed you. I'm really sorry."

"Don't worry about it, Eri." said Shiki, touching her by her shoulder. "I forgive you."

There was pause between them.

"So uh, wanna go shopping with me?" asked Eri.

"Oh, yes I love that!" Shiki said excitedly.

Then they walk out of the house and went to the mall. To them, it's the moment that's gonna be remembered for the rest of their lives.


End file.
